Ekf Diagnostics Share Discussion Threads

[wan] 12/1/2021 09:02

It was gently touched on before by the CEO regarding EUA of sample collection devices (courtesy of Hastings CEO interview), so I want to make sure readers are aware that EUAs are only given during a declared emergency; outside of this, an EUA is never given. In this regard EUA's will be revoked accordingly when the state of emergency has passed, and this applies to the raft of Covid-19 tests enabled via EUA's too.

Hopefully readers are fully aware that PrimeStore MTM is already FDA approved. So, post the emergency situation (and most likely before that) it will be interesting to see what Covid-19 tests actually achieve full FDA approval (some won't cut the mustard!), because likewise the sample collection device, which is essential to perform the tests, will also need to be FDA approved.

In this regard, there is an increasing likelihood that Covid-19 testing will become a permanent feature, somewhat like the flu season, and EKF are now well placed to participate in 'both' flu and Covid-19 testing.

To add weight to the permanency of testing, the following exemplifies what governments and certain companies will be undertaking -

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DOD Awards $110 Million Firm Fixed Price Contract Action to Puritan Medical Products to Increase Domestic Production Capacity of Foam Tip Swabs
JAN. 8, 2021

On January 8, 2021, the Department of Defense (DOD), in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), awarded $110 million to Puritan Medical Products to procure production equipment necessary to increase domestic production capability of foam tip swabs used in critical COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

The global increase in COVID-19 cases continues to impact diagnostic test manufacturers and the supply chains that support specimen collection and testing performance. This industrial base expansion effort, with a not-to-exceed value of $110 million, will allow Puritan to procure the production equipment necessary to increase production capacity by 200M foam tip swabs per month by September 2021, to support domestic COVID-19 testing.

Full release -

This, at the very least, perhaps aligns well with the broker indicating that the pattern is expected to persist throughout Q1’21 and beyond, and that a series of material upgrades and regular updates are expected throughout the course of the year.

In my view testing will become a permanent feature, and PrimeStore MTM and EKF are very well placed to effectively fill the space that some will be 'unable' to fill.

[wan] 12/1/2021 08:52

Thanks for the update Hastings

[hastings] 12/1/2021 08:37

Once again agree with you Mas- Singer comment- Ongoing strong demand for EKF’s products, both in the core business and the Primestore MTM Covid-19 sample collection device, means the FY20 outturn will be “comfortably ahead” of already upgraded expectations. This pattern is expected to persist throughout Q1’21 and beyond and management is confident that the performance in Q1 will be materially ahead
of expectations. Having previously left FY21 estimates untouched, we are today putting
through the first in what we expect to be a series of material upgrades. Given the dynamic situation around Covid-19, we expect regular updates throughout the course of the year and will adjust our forecasts accordingly as visibility over ordering patterns increases.

[masurenguy] 12/1/2021 08:29

Well nearly 100 transactions in the first 25 minutes with some profit taking based on the principle "sell on the news". This will "motor" further north over the next few days unless there is a market crash.

[babbler] 12/1/2021 08:25

Surprised this hasn't motored. Guess people prefer penny stick high risk shares.

[james188] 12/1/2021 07:57

“Comfortably ahead” of (upgraded) market expectations, but “materially ahead” (so 10% plus?)of current management expectations for Q1 2021. A pity that the level of management expectations was not further quantified, but N+1 Singer had very conservative figures for FY 2021. They are due to issue an updated forecast which will hopefully provide a more specific indication of those expectations.

[btgman] 12/1/2021 07:45

Fantastic news from EKF I am intrigued as to where house broker goes with their upgraded figures. I had 5p EPS in for this for year end 31.12.20 all along it may actually get close this.

Whichever way you look at EKF if it was £1 share price it would be cheap.

AIMHO
GLA
BTG

[wan] 12/1/2021 07:20

Excellent Trading Update!

Confirmation of an enduring dividend and a progressive dividend policy will also go down very well indeed, and indicates the enduring and growing nature of EKF's portfolio, revenues and profits.

[rivaldo] 12/1/2021 07:11

Bingo :o))

"continued strong trading will result in the performance for the year ending 31 December 2020 being comfortably ahead of already upgraded market expectations".

And even better:

"the Board is confident that performance for the first quarter of 2021 will be materially ahead of current management expectations, and the first quarter of 2020."

Plus with £21m net cash EKF can action all sorts of expansion plans without dilution for shareholders.

Great stuff:

[wan] 11/1/2021 18:46

Thanks Pldazzle.

Hmm, still nothing showing in corporate actions within my Barclays Smart Investor accounts (assuming the Registrar must be informing all EKF holders), albeit some platforms are apparently already showing the correct amount of Trellus shares. Perhaps it will take a while longer for all platforms to officially register the in specie shares? However, in relation to Trellus, the EKF shares did not even show an ex rights date!

I have previously spoken with Salim (Company Secretary) about this. It is apparently the platform that is at fault for not being capable of showing the in specie shares (both Verici and Trellus), but I was hopeful that it would have been sorted by now.

I will make further enquiries to Barclays tomorrow.

[james188] 11/1/2021 18:10

I have now received the same confirmation that my Trellus holding will be corrected.Not the registrars' finest hour.

[pldazzle] 11/1/2021 17:37

A further email from EKF, just arrived:

Dear Mr xxx

Thank you for your support of EKF as a shareholder. I have passed your e-mail on to the Company Secretary for his action, however I can see that there is some bulletin board speculation that the letter on EKF letterhead that you have received may be part of a scam, and I just wanted to reassure you that that is not the case. The letter is genuine.

I am happy for you to put the fact that I have confirmed this onto ADVFN if you wish – I am not able to post directly.

Regards
Colin Anderson
Deputy Finance Director, EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

[faz] 11/1/2021 15:21

Many thanks for that pldazzle.

[mirandaj] 11/1/2021 11:57

April seems so long ago!

[btgman] 11/1/2021 10:26

Again some fairly significant volume on the buy side again. Someone is getting in to EKF.

The next update should be fascinating another Webinar would be useful.

AIMHO
GLA
BTG

[wan] 11/1/2021 07:50

I also note that Source Bio has announced today an initial trial to extend it's PCR testing -

SourceBio International PLC COVID-19 testing agreement
11/01/2021 7:00am

SourceBio International plc (AIM: SBI), an international provider of integrated state of the art laboratory services and products, announces that it has entered into a supply agreement with a leading UK high street retail and pharmacy group to provide laboratory-based testing services to support the roll-out of COVID-19 testing across UK stores.

Under the initial 12-month agreement SourceBio will offer COVID-19 PCR Testing services from its ISO 15189 accredited laboratory facility in Nottingham. The service is being trialled initially across a limited number of clinically approved high street sites with the goal to offer larger-scale COVID-19 diagnostic testing across many more UK stores should it prove successful.

[wan] 11/1/2021 07:46

My post from the Verici thread -

Very important news today.

This is an exciting development because invasive tissue biopsies remain the primary method of diagnosing fibrotic diseases. Thus, the ability to measure disease specific biomarkers non-invasively is highly desired. This potentially (at this stage) puts Verici firmly in Care DX's space (a large player) and potentially of great interest to the likes of Davita! It is a very large market that's unfortunately set to get much bigger, but importantly it's set get a lot more attention in terms of enabling transplants.

[rivaldo] 11/1/2021 07:33

News from Verici this morning for the record:



"Additional patent licence with Mount Sinai

Worldwide exclusive licence to liquid biopsy IP for predicting risk of fibrosis and chronic damage rejection

Strengthens patent portfolio covering the entire kidney transplant diagnostic pathway

etc"

[the shuffle man] 09/1/2021 18:58

I have the Trellus shares showing on my share centre account in the correct ratio

[pldazzle] 09/1/2021 18:19

I have emailed the company as follows:

Dear Sirs

I hold x,xxx Ordinary shares in EKF Diagnostics PLC.

I have received a letter from yourselves - signed in facsimile by Salim Hamir, Company Secretary - stating that I now hold x,xxx "Dividend Trellus Shares". This is the same number as my holding of EKF shares. I am aware that at least one other shareholder has received a similar letter.

Contrariwise, EKF's successive RNS announcements have stated that the dividend in specie was to be in the ratio 1 Trellus : 16.25 EKF. By my reckoning, accordingly, I should now be the holder of yyy Trellus shares rather than x,xxx.

Can you please confirm (a) that the letter I received is authentic and genuine, and (b) that it is incorrect and that a replacement letter will be sent out.

On a separate matter, can you please let me know when and in what form the value of the dividend in specie will be announced. This is for the purposes of my 2020/21 tax return, which I wish to submit promptly this year.

Yours faithfully

[james188] 09/1/2021 16:27

I have also received a letter from EKF (or at least on their letter head) which shows the number of Trellus shares allocated as equal to my EKF holding. However, my CS Direct account correctly shows an allocation of 1:16.25.

The shares are locked in and not tradeable, so I am inclined to think that this is an error rather than a scam. I expect that the company will clarify on Monday. If not, I will contact them.

[pldazzle] 09/1/2021 16:10

wan ... many thanks, but this letter is on official EKF letterhead and is signed by Salim Hamir, company secretary. I am confident that it's authentic: the language is formal, and in all other respects, the letter reiterates the terms of the 14 December RNS, including e.g. details of the Lock-up Period.

I am well aware of boiler room scams (my nephew is a QC who prosecutes them!) and do not take cold phone calls. Nor would I be interested in selling my EKF or Trellus shares anyway.

The letter ends: If you have any questions, please contact us through our investor relations: Tel. [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. The phone number I don't recognise, but the email address is as per EKF's website I will email them to find out what's going on.

[wan] 09/1/2021 16:03

Following on from highlighting the recent PerkinElmer acquisition, the following article also covers the acquisition rationale and the TB opportunity -

PerkinElmer inks $591M Oxford Immunotec buy to challenge Qiagen in TB market

PUBLISHED
Jan. 8, 2021

Dive Brief:
PerkinElmer has struck a deal to buy tuberculosis test provider Oxford Immunotec for $591 million, positioning it to compete with Qiagen for the infectious disease market.

The deal will give PerkinElmer control of the T-SPOT.TB test, a diagnostic that measures T cells against Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens to detect active and latent TB infection. Oxford Immunotec product sales hit $69.8 million in 2019, up 28% over the prior year, but were negatively impacted by COVID-19 in 2020.

The test will slot into a portfolio of other immunodiagnostics at PerkinElmer, many of which it acquired in back-to-back takeovers of Euroimmun and Tulip in 2017.

Dive Insight:
The deal marks the fourth for medtech this week, following Hologic's two acquisitions in the women's health space and Stryker's acquisition of the orthopaedic technology company OrthoSensor.

Some analysts expect a wave of dealmaking this year amid a combo of ready capital and distressed assets.

Oxford Immunotec competes for the TB blood test market with Qiagen’s QuantiFERON-TB Gold in-Tube test. Some studies have found T-SPOT.TB to be more sensitive and cheaper than its rival. Oxford Immunotec values the quantified TB testing market at $1 billion, suggesting it is currently only scratching the surface of the opportunity.

PerkinElmer is now set to be the company that tries to realize that opportunity and expects the acquired assets to grow faster than its broader diagnostics franchise for the foreseeable future. The existing diagnostics franchise grew 93% in the third quarter, driven by sales related to COVID-19. Other parts of PerkinElmer’s business were negatively affected by the crisis, with non-COVID-19 immunodiagnostic sales only 80% to 90% normalized by the third quarter.

Speaking to investors on a third quarter results conference call, PerkinElmer CEO Prahlad Singh said “there are several other new immunodiagnostic assays that we are either working on in-house or also looking at inorganic opportunities."

Full story -